St. Cloud’s Bumbledee’s Expanding into Next Door Space [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- A business that has been in St. Cloud for nearly a decade is expanding its downtown location.

Bumbledee's the arts and antique store is in the process of expanding into the space next door. Echo Nelson is the owner of Bumbledee's. She took over ownership of the store last September. She says the two spaces originally were one portion of a store.

"The building needed to be filled. The owner of the building owns both sides and this was originally one store, JCPenney, it was the shoe department."

More recently the space was formerly the Rusty Pick. The Rusty Pick closed its downtown location last August so they could expand their Waite Park store.

Nelson says the process of expanding hasn't been too tough thanks to her dedicated team.

"I just decided to expand and I was able to with the team that I have."

The expansion will mostly be an extension of the current space. Nelson says dealers will have more room to showcase their items.

"Bumbledee's is originally an antique mall of about 30 dealers. I've included some artists that also have their own spaces."

Nelson was originally a dealer inside the store before she took over as the new owner. She focuses on making custom jewelry. She'll often hand stamp pieces in front of customers. She says she lets dealers decorate their sections how they see fit.

"So everybody has their own space, they can do what they wish as long as it's clean and tasteful."

Bumbledee's will be looking to add a few more vendors after the expansion. If you're interested stop by the store.

With the extra space they'll be adding a music room, Nelson says they'd eventually like to have live music performances once a month.

"We're mostly carrying vinyl, we have some 8-tracks, some different style Edisions, phonographs and just all kinds of different older style music."

Bumbledee's is hosting an expansion celebration where the whole community is invited.

"That'll be February 9th, Saturday from 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. We'll do music at 1:00 p.m. My husband is the musician along with his brother."

Bumbledee's is at 711 West St. Germain Street, St. Cloud.